Two arrested for kidnapping; mystery is what happened next

Urasoe Police arrested two men Tuesday on suspicion of wrongful imprisonment (kidnapping).

According to police, scaffolding workers Hiroaki Kinjo and Chihiro Matsukawa, both 20 years old, are suspected of forcing a 25-year-old unemployed man from Ginowan into the trunk of their car Monday morning, and then driving 300 meters to Makiminato Fishing Port, where he was thrown or fell into the ocean.

Kinjo and Matsukawa have admitted to the kidnapping but deny throwing the man into the ocean insisting that he fell or jumped himself, perhaps trying to escape

Four minutes later, Urasoe Fire and Rescue Team got an emergency call from a person who was at the fishing port at the time, reporting that someone was drowning.

A police patrol also arrived at the scene and arrested the two suspects, while a member of the rescue team dived into the ocean and found the unemployed man at the bottom of the harbor. He was taken to a hospital in a serious condition. Police say when found the man was fully clothed and unconscious, but seemed to have no physical injuries.

Three under-age boys who had formerly worked with the victim were present at the site, and police interviewed them as witnesses.

The boys told investigators, “The unemployed man went somewhere to take his wallet.” According to another eye witness at the harbor, the unemployed man had gotten out of the trunk of the car, argued with the group, and fell into the ocean by himself.

According to another witness, the five young men laughed pointing to the ocean after the victim fell.

The unemployed man, Kinjo and Matsukawa were former colleagues. Kinjo and Matsukawa insist, “We only took him away to talk.”

According to an Urasoe & Ginowan Fishermen’s Cooperative official who checked a surveillance video taken at the time in the fishing port, the man who got out from the car trunk argued with the group, and one of the group kicked him. After that, the situation in the video looks like someone urged the man to jump into the ocean, but finally the man fell by himself.

The video reportedly also showed the man taking a pause, bowing like apologizing.

A worker at a nearby sea grape farm says he heard laughing. “I thought first they were making a dog swim, but the situation seemed to change, and the young guys tried to throw a mooring rope into the ocean, and one seemed to call somewhere,” the worker said.

Urasoe Police are continuing the investigation, and try to pierce together a timeline and what actually happened.